The Importance of Passion – Lessons from DPEEE 2016

Have a passion, and show it. People will notice.

We – my research group and I – participated in the now-international DPEEE Summer Conference this week. DPEEE stands for the Doctoral Programme of Electrical Engineering, a loose joint-organ of the electrical engineering departments of different Universities of Technology. Each year, one of them organizes a relaxed summer conference for keeping in touch with each other’s research and organisational changes, and some informal networking.

This year, it was Tampere‘s turn. This brought some refreshing changes. You see, the event’s been typically Finland-only. But, this year it went international for the first time, with the inclusion of Tallinn University of Technology.

Also the contents took a step away from pure research only. Indeed, we began by two more-political talks, the first one being about societal influencing aspects of energy research.

The second one was by Ms. Sirpa Pietikäinen, a Finnish long-term politician and a Member of the European Parliament. Her talk also dealt with policy-making, but from the politicians’ angle.

Agree to disagree

I didn’t agree with all she had to say. You might even argue I would be dumb to do so, her being a politician and all.

For instance, she was quite keen about energy politics, and visioned all new buildings in EU being zero-energy ones in the near future. Finland actually took some steps to that direction during and after the 70’s oil crisis. Regulations were passed for better heat insulation for all new constructions. Unfortunately, those turned out to insulate water vapour just as well. As a result, the buildings are now basically rotting down, with people getting sick from mold.

Incidentally, the topic was actually covered in several news pieces just a few weeks before the event: Energy regulations did indeed in some cases result in a notable decrease in the in-building air quality.

So you can understand my scepticism.

She also mentioned the so-called black swan events, mostly in association with nuclear power and GMOs. By her definition, black swans are rare and highly unexpected events that we the humans are ill-prepared for. Furthermore, we tend to underestimate the risk associated with those. Hence and finally, we should avoid occasions and technologies with uncertain risks that we have little experience in. That would include the aforementioned nuclear power and genetic manipulation.

Feasibility of Minimax

Well, she has a point. Nuclear waste storage definitely requires some quite elaborate risk analysis.

However, I would argue that humans overestimate the risks of rare events. Just ask pretty much anybody, and they will be disproportionally afraid of e.g. flying or mugging. By contrast, few will mention cardiovascular disease – much more likely to actually hurt or kill them.

On a more technical level, I would say her suggested approach was to perform Minimax optimization on risks (or costs to be exact – the damage done by a harmful event). In other words, plan our actions in such a way that the worst-case scenario is as good as possible.

While useful in some games, I think Minimax is not the way to go in real-world applications. It tends to assign disproportionate weight to incredibly unlikely events – such as a nuclear meltdown or some monster-of-the-week breaking out of a GMO lab. In doing so, it ignores the much more likely but less serious events. These could include e.g. farming problems (alleviated by GMO), or frakking up our power grid by having too few mid-merits (due to careless subsidizing of renewables).

But!

By now, you might think I hated her talk.

Not at all. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Yeah, we didn’t share the same opinions on most of the topics covered. And yes, her English heavily accented. Even painfully so, at times.

But she made up for all this with passion.

She obviously believed in what she was saying. And it was obviously very, very important to her.

And that kind of fire makes you listen. Even if you don’t agree. Even if you didn’t care about the topic.

She does, and being so fervently obvious about it makes you question you own beliefs, or nod your head in agreement.

Passion stands out

It is quite easy to see how this can be applied to e.g. academia.

Show some passion about your research topic, and the audience will notice. They will remember you, and cite you in the future. You get a grant, and don’t have to worry about starving for a few more months or years.

But it also goes beyond that.

Showing passion is external. Having passion is internal.

It is something that drives you, even when nothing else will. It’s something that gets you out of the bed even during rough times. And let’s face it – everybody will have them every now and then.

It also makes you do something memorable, instead of just idling through your life. I mean pretty much by definition, you tend to remember what you care about. Doesn’t have to be something grand.

Lesson time

So, today’s exercise for us all: figure out your passion.

For me, I could mention my work (something on which I spend quite a hefty portion of my time), along with gym and nutrition (something I can be quite vocal about). Family too, obviously, but I like to keep that private.

Now it’s your turn.

You most certainly have one. Probably even several. You may simply have never thought of them as such.

But just take a brief moment to sit down and think. Understanding and acknowledging what drives you will give you a new sense of purpose.

Woah, deep. Don’t forget to check out more practical lessons from DPEEE too!

-Antti

The Importance of Passion – Lessons from DPEEE 2016